English
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French- What were the two proposals expressed in the testimony of faith (Shahāda)? In which way did they differ? Highlight the proposal of the Shahāda asserting the oneness of God.
- Is the fact of reciting aloud the Shahāda the essence of faith (Īmān)? Whose authority did Shahrastānī rely upon to justify his opinion?
- According to Shahrastānī, are all men called to access the knowledge of God?
- Who was the religious personality at the origin of the founding of the madrasa?
- Highlight the laudatory phrases and titles that were awarded to the founder.
- Which legal school would be taught in this madrasa? Who was its founding lawyer?
- What are the phrases that designated the opponents of Sunnism?
6. From Sunnah to Sunnism – For teachers
The setting up of the "prophetic model" was the work of generations who had not known the prophetic times. They searched this "model" with a single criterion: the Sunnah of the Prophet. The Sunnah included various elements about the Prophet’s deeds (gestures, attitudes, words, silences, etc.), consigned by his companions and compiled in corpora of narrative and normative texts. The first attempts of codification were dated from the early 8th century. A broad selection made in the 9th century was at the origin of the major compilations. The most famous ones are the Sahīh ("the Authentic") by al-Bukhārī (died in 870) and by Muslim (died in 875). The Prophet’s words, collected and sorted out by traditionalists according to their reliability, were designated under the generic term hadīth [see Islam module I page 4].
Sunnism was often presented as some orthodoxy, although this term of Christian origin did not seem appropriate for a tradition devoid of church authorities and of a single doctrine. However it owed its development to the influential body of Muslim scholars, the 'ulamā’. These legal theologians justified their legal, ideological or religious positions by basing them on the Sunnah.
The development of Sunnism in the 10th century - as the expression of the community consensus - happened among particularly violent theological objections. These new religious "discords" divided the Muslim community because of their impact on political life. Against the "extremisms" - Shiism and "innovations" like the rationalist Mu'tazilite doctrine -, the "People of the Community and of the Tradition" resisted by building up a prophetic tradition based on the hadīth, meant to be both the only way and the Islamic norm because of its exemplarity versus Shiism. In Shiism, the Imām was the only one to reveal the hidden meaning of the Holy Word. Purified from destructive "innovations", the Sunni “doctrine” was supposed to be a return to the "right balance". The Sunni tradition developed in the late second century and the early third century of Hegira with major works: theological treatises, legal treatises, Quranic exegeses, compilations of prophetic traditions, and compilations by Companions.
The struggles against "innovations" influenced legal schools and theological doctrines, for example the Mu'tazilite doctrine. This law school, highly influential in Iraq from the 8th century to the 10th century, claimed that the Quran was created to disseminate God's message as a speech transmitted through human words, to be understandable by a society in a given time.
Faced with “subversive” doctrines, the Ash'arite current of thought played a key role in the development of the Sunnah, now considered the most influential school of thought in the Muslim world. This doctrine was named after Ash'arī, a theologian living in the city of Basra in the 10th century. Trained by a Mu'tazili scholar, al-Ash'arī became his master’s adversary and refuted the theses of the Mu'tazila by using rational arguments. His doctrine – that was then developed by his followers - became a "middle way" between the strict literalism used to interpret the Quran and the rationalist study. According to al-Ash'arī, the Revelation prevailed over reason, but reason was useful to refute the "errors" of all the "enemies" of Islam. These “enemies” were internal “enemies” like Mu'tazilites and Shiites, but also Jews, Christians and Manichaeans. Al-Ash’arī defended in particular the idea of an uncreated and unchanging Quran, the Word of God, and the idea of predetermination. He also deepened the knowledge on the founding Sunni dogmas about Resurrection, Heaven and Hell.
In the 10th century, the ‘Abbāsid Empire was threatened by the emergence of rival Arab caliphates. In the following centuries, the power fell into the hands of Berber, Turkish and Kurdish dynasties, shaking the model of the Rightly Guided Caliphate. The question of governance was debated by theologians, jurists and philosophers. What legitimacy did the new sultanates hold? What should be the qualities of a sovereign? Should they rebel against despots? The Mu'tazila based the legitimacy of the community leader on his personal merits. Ash’arite theologians justified the allegiance to the Sultans – chosen by “consultation” or not - in the name of the community interest. The guide of the community needed to be Muslim, to be "just" and to enforce Islamic Law.
Supporters of the Sunnah – who also supported the gathering of believers - acquired a dominant position in the second half of the 10th century and the 11th century. They received support from the political power in their fight against the extremist Shiite “deviations”. Three names were often cited as the "founders" of the “middle way”: al-Shāfi'ī (767-820), also named nāsir as-sunna (who gave the victory to the Sunnah), al-Ash'arī and al-Ghazālī. Sunnism was taught in the new madrasas founded by the Seljuk Turks and the Berber dynasties in the Muslim West (Maghreb and Andalusia). In the 11th century, in order to "restore" Sunnism and counter the most extreme Shiism, Nizām al-Mulk, vizier of the Seljuk Sultan, founded state schools of religious sciences to spread the Ash’arite doctrine and also founded a law school for al-Shāfi'ī.
Ash'arism supported the legitimacy of the tribe of Quraysh - the tribe of the first successors of the Prophet. The first four caliphs, the "Rightly Guided" (632-661), were legitimized by consultation and by the choice of an assembly (shūra). Sunnism sacralized these outstanding caliphs, who were related to the Prophet by blood or by marriage alliances. Obedience was due to the sovereigns, who enforced the Law of Islam (Sharī'a) interpreted by case law specialists according to given rules. Major Sunni treatises defended the legitimacy of the Caliphate institution since the Rightly Guided, by adapting it to their times, for example Al-Māwardī (11th century) under the 'Abbasids and Ibn Taymiyya (13th century) at the time of the Mamluk sultans of Egypt and Syria.
Sunnism has often been reduced to the "Profession of Faith" and to the five obligatory duties known as "Pillars of Islam", a term taken from one famous hadīth. But Sunnism should not only be defined by the adoption of these principles and the adoption of theological ideas. Supporters of the Sunnah also adopted legal discourse, practice of law and a doctrine. The legal systems - known under the names of schools - were built up alongside heated debates from the 9th century to the 12th century. These legal systems were then “individualized” from the second century of the Hegira.
Introduction to religious traditions | Introduction to Islam I. History of Islam
6. From Sunnah to Sunnism
Sunnism - the “middle way” - emerged as the “right balance” among schismatic tendencies (Kharijites, Shiites, etc.) but also as an alternative to theological and legal doctrines considered as alterations of the Tradition and as a source of discord among Muslims. Sunnism considered itself as the only mode of thinking capable of preserving the cohesion of the Community. It became a major trend in Islam. The term “Sunnism” is a Western neologism from the Arabic word sunnah. In the Arabic language used by the tribes of the peninsula, sunnah was the path that, in the desert, led men on the right track. It was also the tradition of the elders imposed on the tribe. The Quranic term Sunnah refers both to the way of acting and to the Law according to Allāh (sunnat Allāh). In what context - and against whom - did the Sunni tradition start? What about the main policies on theological and political issues that were discussed in the formative period of Islam - fidelity to the Sunnah, the nature of God, the legitimacy of rulers?
The Shahada, the Formal Confession of Faith
There is no god but Allah, and Muhammad is his messenger.
La Shahâda, first pillar of the faith.
The place of the Shahada in faith according to Sharastani
It is true that the Prophet was not satisfied with mere saying of the Shahāda which was not based on inner conviction, but, on the other hand, he did not impose upon all men the duty of knowing God as he really is, for that was evidently something beyond capacity of all men.
Sharastānī (1086-1153), Persian philosopher and theologian. Quoted by T. Izutsu in: The Concept of Belief in Islamic Theology, Tokyo, 1965, p. 180.
The Formal Confession of Faith was always recited in Arabic, as the first of the Five pillars of worship imposed on every Muslim. It was based on surah 112 of the Quran: "Say, “He is Allah, the One, Allah, the Eternal Refuge; He neither begets nor is born; nor is there to Him any equivalent." This statement meant a major break from polytheisms and from the Christian theology of the Trinity. The Attestation set up the framework for the "True Religion" and for the main dogma of Islam.
This profession of faith was a twofold attestation, as the public declaration of a double belief: belief in one God and belief in his messenger Muhammad. The historical background of this profession of faith is still little known, both for its religious formulation and for its consecration by the Tradition. Most of the oldest Shahāda engraved in Arabic in the territories of the first expansion of Islam, from Arabia to Syria, only included the first part of the profession of faith, unlike the traditional Shahāda. They did not mention the mission of Muhammad.
The Shiites had the same Shahāda than Sunnis, but some Twelvers [see Islam module I page 5] added: "’Alī is the vicegerent of God."
The Shahāda reaffirmed the oneness of God (tawhīd), a main issue in theological controversies from the 8th century to the 12th century. It opposed in particular the "reasoners" to the scholars against dialectic, who rejected their logical rigour and preferred to refer to the Holy Texts only. The issue of tawhīd was a source of religious and political divisions - particularly the question of God’s eternal attributes and God’s “physical” attributes (the “hand” of God, the “face” of God, etc.).
Shahrastānī was a Persian philosopher who taught at the famous Nizamiyyā of Baghdad. He made a distinction between lay people and the elite, the only one to access knowledge. As a theologian and a historian of "sects" and religious doctrines, he was involved in the controversies run by legal theologians on the position of the Shahāda in the belief. Was the Shahāda sufficient to assess one’s faith, as taught by Ibn Karrām in the 9th century? Was it necessary to back it up with theological texts? Halfway from extreme thinking - sometimes called "abominable innovations" by critics -, most Sunnis defined the belief (Īmān) through three components: knowledge of the heart (tasdīq), assessment by the language (Iqrār) and theological works ('amal).
Out of 196 countries worldwide, 64 countries chose religious symbols for their national flag (stars, crescent, etc.), including 21 Muslim countries. Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan and Somaliland included the Shahāda on their national flag. Radical Muslim organizations (Hamas, Sunni jihadists, etc.) put it on their black flag, also called the "flag of Tawheed".
Inscription stating the founding of the madrasa in Cairo under Saladin (1080)
This college was built at the instance of the shaykh, faqīh* , imām... and ascetic Najm al-Dīn, the pillar of Islam, exemplar of mankind Abul Barakat al-Khabushani... for the benefit of those learned faqīh disciples of al-Shāfî'ī, who are distinguished by their firm doctrinal base (in contrast to) other vain raisonners and innovators.
*Faqīh: lawyer
Quoted by André Raymond in: Cairo, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2000, p. 103.
The inscription of the al-Nasiriyah madrasa (dated 1180) has been preserved at the Islamic Museum in Cairo. The inscription did not mention Sultan Saladin. The madrasa was founded under the auspices of al-Khabushani, a religious authority who was highly respected by Saladin, but described as stubborn by his opponents. Al-Khabushani vigorously fought the Hanbali lawyers whom he hated, as well as the “argumentative” theologians (Mu'tazilites) and all the "innovations" that were harmful for the community of Muslims. A madrasa is a college for religious studies. The inscription that was on the madrasa clearly condemned “deviant” doctrines and "innovations". The madrasa was built next to the famous shrine of al-Shāfi'ī [see Islam module II page 4], the centre of a great popular devotion to this day. During its early years, Sunnism faced extremely violent internal conflicts between legal schools in Cairo and in Baghdad. Founded by Saladin, the Ayyūbid dynasty (1171-1250) created numerous madrasas in major cities from Syria to Egypt. The text of this inscription referred to the main opponents of the Sunni tradition. The "arguers" were Mu'tazilite theologians. Their doctrine, based on logical arguments, recognized the right to revolt, and claimed that the Word of God was not only created but also inscribed in time and in a particular context. Theologians defending the Sunnah rejected the ideas actively spread by the Mu'tazilites and their subsequent "innovations" distorting the only way to follow - the way that had received the consensus of the community.
